


reunited

by bottomoftheocean



Category: The Sims (Video Games)
Genre: Multi, Vampires, Witches, can't tag much without spoilers sorry!, good!eve, vampire!sloane, witch!micah
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-05
Updated: 2020-06-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:21:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 18,969
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24559087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bottomoftheocean/pseuds/bottomoftheocean
Summary: Time goes by after the Vatore siblings revive Sloane. Forgotten Hollow is in need of help, so they call upon the man who's saved the town of Strangerville twice over: Cody Jett.
Relationships: Sloane Browne/Sebastian Callery-Aiken
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. required

**Author's Note:**

> i know this is not usually the type of content i post on my ao3 account, but i wrote this as a continuation of a story i began on my instagram account, @dulcetxsims, in screenshots.
> 
> i found that the original method of sharing it gave me no way to keep track of who had been reading it, so i decided i should post it here in order for it to feel less clunky and give me a better chance to know who'd been enjoying the story. i will likely write up the first two chapters in words at some point, but for now, here is the story from chapter three to the end. the rest is on my aforementioned instagram page. :)
> 
> i do hope you enjoy!

_two months later; july 14_

Cody entered the bar feeling absolutely on top of the world for the first time in a long time. That day, he’d finally nabbed the job promotion he’d been aiming for since November. Tonight, his friends and family were meeting him at the bar to celebrate. Tonight, he would let none of the regret he felt for failing to save Sloane’s life bother him, and he would make sure Sebastian could enjoy himself too.

It had been about eight months since Sloane’s death, and though the regret still panged at Cody sometimes, it was nothing compared to the effect it had on Seb. His family had been trying to take care of him, but since Sage had moved off to Sulani with Airi, he’d been lonelier than ever. He quit his job in the military a few days before returning home, unable to function without the smallest of things reminding him of her. He’d lost the love of his life, just as soon as he’d gotten her back, and nothing would ever make that better. But Cody was willing to try anything to get his cousin to have one enjoyable night.

Reuben and Micah flanked him on either side as he walked in, and they headed over to a table in the corner where Sammy and Seb already sat. It had been awhile since Cody had seen either of his cousins, and it caught him off guard to see the black roots of Sammy’s hair stark against faded pink.

“Hey there, mister Laboratory Leader!” Sammy called as they approached. “How’s life been for you?”

Cody chuckled. “Seems they’ve been going better for me than you, if the dye job is anything to go by.”

Sammy blushed. “It was Eve’s idea, as a tribute to my mom. We used magic to bleach it and then I dyed it pink.”

Cody sat across from his cousin in the booth. “That’s real sweet, Sammy. I bet you Aunt Lilith really appreciated it. Wherever she may be.”

“Phoe definitely did, after she was done laughing at me for how ridiculous it looked.”

“That’s because it did look ridiculous next to your black eyebrows,” Seb mumbled, eliciting a snort from Micah and causing Sammy to smack him lightly on the shoulder.

“It did not!” Sammy insisted.

In chorus, everyone who had seen the pink-haired boy in the last few months said, “Of course not, Sammy,” and then laughed. Sammy pouted.

After the laughter died down, Cody decided to go get the first round from the bar. He took orders and left, allowing Micah to slide in closer to the wall and take his seat across from Sammy. It was probably better that way, he thought to himself as he walked off.

He returned with a tray of drinks, some alcoholic and some not, after a few minutes and rejoined the conversation, which had shifted to Sammy discussing his magic lessons with Holly and Abel, and how Seth and Eve were becoming so powerful that they might someday be able to beat him in a duel.

Cody felt bad for having not believed Sammy about Holly’s powers for so long, knowing now that she was one of the three most powerful witches in the entirety of the world, but he was glad to be wrong so that Sammy could learn from her and also so that Phoenix was able to return from the dead in the way that she did. He realized that he had never seen Sammy so happy, even though he had lost both of his parents between New Year’s Eve and now. And he was so, so glad to see that at least one of the three cousins from Strangerville had made out well from these last few months.

He just found himself wishing that person could have been Sebastian.

-

Another hour or so went by, the boys idly chatting over a few rounds of drinks. It was nice, Cody thought, to be surrounded by the people he loved most and celebrating something he’d been wishing for for so long. But of course, at some point in drinking alcohol, it must come out again, so Cody took a trip to the bathroom.

It was meant to be a quick trip, but as he went to leave the secluded hallway of the bar, he was stopped by a tall, dark-haired woman who almost could have been a Villareal if Cody were a little drunker.

“Hey uh, if you could get out of my way, I’d like to get back to my table,” he said.

“You are Cody Jett, no?” she responded.

Cody’s eyes widened and he immediately stopped trying to get past her. “Okay… how the fuck do you know who I am?”

“I am told that you are the scientist who solved the Strangerville mystery, as well as the one who stopped the corrupt scientist Mindy Huang from destroying the town a second time?” All Cody could do was nod. “My name is Lilith Vatore. My brother Caleb and I have caught wind of the murder of Count Vladislaus Straud the Fourth. We have been told that the murderer, a fellow vampire, just as Vlad was, has taken up residence in his mansion and plans to take control of the entire population of Forgotten Hollow. We cannot let that happen.”

Cody took a deep breath. “Listen, Lilith was it? Lilith. I don’t really do that stuff anymore. I kinda failed miserably at saving my cousin’s girlfriend’s life when Mindy turned her into a zombie and it’s ruined both his and my lives… I’d like to stick to my job, you know, rocket science and stuff. The kind of thing that can’t… get people I care about killed.”

The look Lilith gave him could have literally killed if he weren’t so stubborn. “You saved Strangerville twice. Why can you not do the same for Forgotten Hollow? My brother and I need you, Cody.”

“I… I just can’t do that. I can’t let any more of my friends die because you, a stranger, need me.”

“You can, and you will.” With that, Lilith raised her arms and Cody momentarily lost consciousness. When he came to, he saw everything around him with a slight green tint.

“Wha…” he said, all he could muster.

“Now, I think we have reached an understanding. I did not want to do this the hard way, but you are significantly more stubborn than I expected. Will you help my brother and me save our town?”

Cody nodded slowly.

“And will you let me drink from you? You will be safer this way.”

With very little awareness whatsoever, and completely under Lilith’s control, he tilted his head to the left and exposed his neck to her. He mumbled, barely audible, as she sank her fangs into his flesh, and obeyed when she held her own wrist to his mouth for him to drink from. She wiped his mouth off with her thumb, gently, and then snapped him out of his trance.

“Thank you, Cody Jett. I will be seeing you in a few days’ time when you reach Forgotten Hollow.” And then Lilith was gone. If it weren’t for Cody’s throbbing neck and fuzzy head, he might not have believed she had been there at all.

He walked back to the table, in a sort of daze. Reuben had left earlier, citing a photo session early the next morning, but everyone else immediately looked worried when he sat down.

“Dude, are you okay?” Micah asked. “You look like hell all of a sudden.”

Cody blinked, and instinctively reached up to cover the fang marks on his neck. He spoke almost comically slowly. “Hate to break it to you, but there’s trouble in Forgotten Hollow. Guess I gotta… go on another adventure.”

Sammy perked up at that, drunker than the rest. “Can I come too?”

“The girl, uh… the vampire, I guess, that I talked to in there… she said I’d be… safer this way. So I don’t know if you ought to, Sammy…” Cody said.

“But my powers, Cody, I swear I can he-”

“Wait,” Seb cut in, “what do you mean, ‘safer this way?’ What did this person do to you?” He seemed significantly more worried than the other two.

“Vampire,” Cody said, correcting Seb’s usage of the word ‘person.’ “I think… she turned me into one.”

“Oh, I’m _definitely_ coming now!” Sammy cried. “You can’t navigate an unfamiliar place on your own at the same time as dealing with being a _fledgling vampire!_ ”

“If Sammy’s coming, I am too,” Seb said. “It can be like, Strangerville 2.0.”

“You’d need me there for that,” Micah said.

“Yes!” Sammy yelled. “Micah should come too! We can be an _adventure squad!!_ It’ll be so fun!”

“Not sure if saving a town for the third time is really much of an adventure, Short Stack, but the sentiment is there. I’ll tag along if I’m welcome.”

Cody sighed. “I suppose you… want Braylen to come too?”

Sammy shook his head vigorously. “We’re… not really friends anymore.”

“Remember when I had that black eye a couple months ago? He punched me in the face when he was drunk.” Micah said. “Sammy wasn’t happy about that.”

“Neither was I, for the record,” Seb said.

There was a pause. Then, Cody said, “Okay… you know what, fine. You can all come. But if this is… too dangerous, I’m sending you all… home.” He knew that he couldn’t win this fight, especially in his current state.

“Yay!” Sammy cried.

“Now… do you think we could get out of here? I need to sleep for a day or so, I think…”

Micah immediately began to help Cody out of the booth, and Seb did the same for Sammy. “I think it’s about time Sammy gets to bed too,” he said.

“Hey, I’m fine!” Sammy whined, and then proceeded to stumble. Micah laughed at him.

The four all said their goodbyes, and then went their separate ways. When Cody and Micah returned home, Cody didn’t even manage to get his shoes off before he fell asleep.

-

_july 17_

The next few days were excruciating for Cody. He slept for the majority of the first day, but by the second, he was miserable. He could barely get out of bed because he was so thoroughly exhausted, though whether from the hypnosis or the turning, he didn’t know. His stomach churned at the mere thought of food. Micah stayed around so that Reuben wouldn’t be exposed to all the supernatural things he was lucky enough to not be privy to. He forced water into Cody’s system even though the redhead could barely even stomach that.

When he finished his transformation, it was unfortunately in the middle of the night. He was awoken by the sensation that his entire body was on fire, and began practically howling in pain. Micah, having been asleep on an air mattress near Cody’s feet, jolted awake at the sound and immediately rushed to his aid, covering his forehead with a cool, wet cloth and gently stroking his bare skin to try and comfort him. Both of them absently hoped Reuben did not wake at the dreadful sounds coming from their room, but could not be too concerned about it given the immediacy of the situation.

Eventually, after what felt like hours but was in reality only about fifteen minutes, Cody’s transformation was complete. Micah couldn’t help but stare at what had been the thin, lanky man he knew, now with obviously defined muscles, fangs, and blood red eyes that had once been green, ringed with what almost looked to be charcoal, if Micah didn’t know any better.

Cody, breathing labored, still had the audacity to smirk. “I take it you’re intrigued, Granados?”

Micah was grateful for the dim moonlight hiding his blush. “What do you expect? I just watched you turn into a fucking vampire, Jett. Give me a break, I’m allowed to stare,” he said.

Cody shrugged. “I suppose. Sorry you had to deal with this at two in the morning.”

“I’d rather it be me than Sammy or Seb.”

“That’s a fair point. Sammy would have cried, and Seb definitely would have panicked thinking I was dying.”

“Hate to break it to you, but… you kinda were dying.”

“Fuck off, Granados, you know what I mean.” Micah just smiled. He continued to gently rub Cody’s shoulder as the redhead’s breathing slowed. “Anyway though, I guess you can sleep in the bed now.”

Micah stopped moving instantly. “What… what do you mean?”

“Damn. Not a come on, you don’t have to look so scared. Just mean that I obviously don’t need it now, so there’s no need for you to sleep on a shitty air mattress on my floor.”

“Oh. Oh, right. That makes sense. I’ll do that.”

“Cool, I’m gonna go take a shower. Might be a vampire, but I still sweat apparently.” Cody rolled off the bed and made his way to the ensuite bathroom, leaving Micah to contemplate what had just happened as he drifted off to sleep again.

-

_july 22_

By the end of that week, the four boys were on their way to Forgotten Hollow. Sammy was practically bouncing with excitement in the backseat of Micah’s beat-up old sedan. Cody sat in the passenger seat, wearing sunglasses even in the waning twilight because even the slightest hint of sunlight felt like it was burning his retinas (and the rest of his body, but that was less painful). Sebastian was driving separately, taking his pickup truck loaded with their belongings, and meeting the rest of them there.

Cody felt mildly nervous about meeting Lilith Vatore again. He hoped that she would help him learn how to be a vampire, but he was so irritated from his thirst and from the fact that she’d even turned him into a vampire in the first place that he feared they’d start off on the wrong foot because of it.

The car ride was several hours, but time felt like it flew by as Sammy talked his and Micah’s ears off about everything under the sun, and Micah hummed softly along to the classic rock station playing softly from the one working speaker in his car. By the time they arrived, it was fully night time. Forgotten Hollow seemed immediately like the kind of place that would be eerie on the best of days, but at night it was particularly so. Cody slid his sunglasses off his face and into the chest pocket of his flannel, and scanned the environment for a familiar female face.

Sammy bounded up to the bed of Seb’s truck and began helping him unload. Micah, much more calmly (and after pulling himself out of the car, pretzel-style, over the console and through the passenger door since the driver’s side door didn’t work half the time), did the same. Seb made eye contact with Cody and then nodded once. The redhead turned away and shifted into his dark form, shuddering as it rippled under his skin.

He didn’t have to go far to find Lilith. She was waiting for him in the center of the little town, sat on the edge of the fountain. “Hello, Cody,” she said, beckoning him to her. “I am glad to see you have made it safely. Who are your friends?” She gestured to his new house, and his companions outside of it.

“Cousins, mostly, except Micah. They wouldn’t let me come alone, even when I told them it wasn’t safe.”

Lilith folded her hands in her lap. “I see. Do keep an eye on them. The vampire living in Vlad’s mansion is more powerful than Caleb or I could ever be, and I do not want to see your friends put into danger because you or they are careless.”

“Trust me, I already told them that I’m sending them hope the _second_ anything goes wrong. They will not be hurt if I can help it.”

“Well, in that case, then, I will go retrieve my brother and our roommate. They have been quite eager to meet you all week long.”

Practically before she even finished speaking, Lilith sped off, leaving Cody slightly baffled and also rather apprehensive at the prospect of meeting not one, but two other vampires in just a moment. He returned to the house, spread the information about their incoming visitors to the boys, and stood waiting for the Vatores to arrive.

Lilith showed first, speeding up to the end of the driveway just as quickly as she’d left. Sammy introduced himself first, stumbling over his words in his excitement. Micah shook Lilith’s hand, referring to himself as “the one who made sure this kid didn’t die this week- oh wait,” and then laughing at his own joke. Seb hung back, lingering nearby the group but not bothering to introduce himself.

Then up sped another figure, this time a man carrying someone. He stopped and put the girl down facing him. She seemed reluctant to turn around, almost afraid, and there was something… oddly familiar about her that Cody couldn’t quite place, even with his newly enhanced vision.

“It’s okay,” the man said to her, “most of these people are humans, but they are familiar with the supernatural. They saved Strangerville.”

Cody watched as the girl’s hands flew to cover her mouth, and he knew before she turned around exactly who it was. He’d seen her make that exact motion the last day he’d seen her alive.

“Sloane?” he asked. She whipped around and gasped.

“Cody, oh god, it really is you!” Sloane said. Cody could see the tears welling up in her eyes even from several feet away.

“Seb, get the fuck over here right now,” Cody called, “you’ll wanna see this.”

Sebastian did as his cousin said, one eyebrow raised in confusion. When he approached, Cody said nothing, but turned him around by the shoulders so he was facing Sloane.

The moment he realized who was before him, the blond instantly broke down and collapsed to the ground on his knees. “Oh my god…” he said between sobs. “Sloane, how… how is this possible?”

She walked up to him and kneeled down to his level. “My spirit couldn’t pass on. I didn’t get to love you long enough. So Caleb found me and he and Lilith brought me back to life… well, kind of.” And then Cody saw the familiar ripple of her skin as her dark eyes began to glow and were ringed with streaks of black. Sloane was a vampire too.

Sebastian looked stunned for a moment, but swallowed thickly and reached for her. She wrapped her fingers around his biceps, pulled him to his feet, and into a tight embrace. Cody smiled and looked away, allowing the two to have their moment. Caleb seemed to have the same idea, as he sped up to Cody to say hello.

“Welcome to Forgotten Hollow,” he said. “I wish it were under better circumstances, but I’m so glad you came to help us.”

“I didn’t realize I had a choice in the matter. According to your sister, I certainly didn’t,” Cody replied.

“We were hoping you would come willingly, sure, but… Forgotten Hollow needs you, Cody. I don’t know if any of us would survive without you.”

The redhead fixed Caleb with a hard stare as he spoke. “Fine. Since for some reason I’m your only hope, and Lilith forcibly turned me into a creature of the undead, I am here and I will help. But before I do that, I’m going to need someone to supply me with some damn blood because I’m surrounded by three living blood bags that I call family and I really don’t want to hurt them.”

“We have plenty of plasma fruit and packs at home, I’m sure we can supply you with some. No worries.”

“Once I have it, then we’ll talk. Got it?”

Caleb nodded.

“Good. Now that that’s out of the way, it _is_ good to meet you. My cousin Sammy’s over there babbling to your sister--he’s a witch by the way, I hope that isn’t an issue. Micah’s the one running in and out with boxes still. And Seb… well, seeing as you’ve been living with Sloane for god knows how long, I’m sure you’ve heard all about him.”

He smiled. “That I have. She told me the entire story, from the creepy plant all the way up until she died in Sebastian’s arms. That’s part of how Lilith and I tracked you down.”

“But she didn’t know?” Cody asked.

“Nah. I thought she could use a pleasant surprise, after six months or so of being a sad, blue ghost that no one could see besides a couple of fellow dead people.” Caleb looked over to Sloane, who was still caught up in her reunion. “She deserves to be happy, you know. She’s one of the most lovely people I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.”

“I could say the same about Seb. He’s been a wreck for the past eight months. Hell, so have I, knowing my failure was the reason he felt so shitty. I’m so glad to see him this happy again.”

Sammy came running over to them then, having finally tired Lilith out to the point that she left. “Hi! I’m Sammy. Nice to meet- whoa,” he said, stopping mid-wave to just stare slack-jawed at the vampire before him.

“Caleb,” Caleb said. “Nice to meet whoa as well.”

“You just- uh… hi.”

Cody would have been content to watch his cousin flounder for eternity, but he needed some damn blood and he needed it soon. So instead, he cut the awkwardness down and got to the point.

“Caleb, Sammy thinks you’re attractive but he’s a disaster so he won’t do anything about it. Sammy, make sure he’s actually interested in men before you pursue anything. Sorry, but I know you. Cool? Now get me something to drink if you please, Caleb, and Sammy, you smell far too good to be this close to me right now so if you could leave, that would be awesome.”

Sammy turned a similar pink to the color of his hair and retreated to assist Micah with the last few boxes.

Cody chuckled to himself. _It’ll be fun to have someone else to tease Sammy about_ , he thought absently, knowing how absolutely incompetent Sammy could be with men he was interested in and also that Micah was finally over the short-lived romance the two had back in Strangerville.

The truth of the matter was, though, that Forgotten Hollow had already well exceeded Cody’s expectations and he couldn’t wait to see what happened next.

  
  



	2. regimented

Cody left with Caleb, Lilith, and Sammy, and returned to the Vatore manor. Lilith brought him a few plasma packs from the refrigerator and then the four of them sat in the living room to discuss the situation.

“As I told you previously,” Lilith began,” our town leader has been murdered. It’s rather difficult to kill a vampire, you know. There is almost no possible way for one to do so unintentionally. Thus when our friend Elle DeVampiro came to us with the news of Vladislaus’ death, we knew instantly that there was a problem.”

“Is it true that the only way to kill a vampire is a wooden stake through the heart, like in the movies?” Sammy asked.

“Yes, unfortunately these ‘movies’ have made it common knowledge exactly how to repel and kill us,” Caleb said. “Which is why most vampires have made the choice to reside here in Forgotten Hollow. It’s much safer to be closed off here than risk being outed to the rest of the world and killed just for being what we are… especially those of us who aren’t necessarily so proud of what we are.”

“Funny, for someone who’s not proud of it, you’ve certainly spread vampirism around,” Cody quipped, popping open a plasma pack with his fangs.

Lilith immediately went on the defense. “It was either turn Sloane or let her wander for eternity as a ghost. And I do not think you would enjoy being snapped like a branch by this woman who murdered Vladislaus if you were not a vampire yourself. I was doing you a favor, Cody Jett.”

Before Cody could respond, Caleb held up a hand. “Anyway, the point here is that Elle informed us of Vlad’s death and said that her friend, Inna Cents, had been taken captive by this mysterious vampire woman. She managed to escape in order to pass on the information, but went back to rescue Inna and we haven’t heard from her since. We’re afraid of what might have happened to them.”

“We have been trying to retrieve as much information about this woman as we can, but all we have determined is that there is no way for the two of us to defeat her on our own,” Lilith said. “Her name is Arya Ambrogio, and she hails from somewhere far off, another vampire clan that is even older than the one that Vlad adopted us into when we arrived in the Hollow.”

“Arya Ambrogio?” Sammy repeated her name. “I wonder if Aunt Holly knows anything about her. That name sounds like something I might have read in one of her history books.”

“It’s possible. Vampires and witches have been entangled in what one might call a war for as long as history has been recorded.” Caleb shrugged. “Personally, Lilith and I do not see the problem with your kind, Sammy. So do not worry about us. But I have a feeling that others will not take so kindly to you.”

“Yes, I will most definitely keep that in mind! And I’ll let Eve know too if she comes by. But just be super assured that I’ll do anything, and I mean anything, I can to help you. My cousin’s a vampire now anyway, so even if I wasn’t super accepting I’d kind of have to be wouldn’t I?” He chuckled nervously.

“I… suppose you’re right about that. Regardless, feel free to use magic around your house or ours, but never outdoors and especially never if anyone else is around besides those of us you know. Most of the residents of this town are our friends, but I doubt most of them have ever encountered a witch. Just… be cautious,” Caleb said.

“Wouldn’t dream of being reckless, I really promise,” Sammy said.

Cody couldn’t help the smirk that crossed his own lips. “You do realize you are the same Samuel Blaze Villareal that just decided to go knock on our alleged criminal neighbor’s door just to say hello and tell him you heard about his crimes?”

Sammy looked offended, which just made Cody laugh harder. “That worked out for the best, you know! Micah’s a good guy!”

“Obviously, but it could have been so bad. You have to know that.”

Sammy huffed. “Okay, fine, you’re right. But this time I promise! I even have Micah to keep me in line now, you said it yourself.”

“Speaking of Micah,” Cody said, “maybe you should go help him get stuff unpacked so you two and Seb can get some sleep.”

“Oh right, you don’t have to do that anymore! Yeah, I’ll go help. Seb and Sloane are probably enjoying their reunion so I bet he’s all alone… gosh, now I feel bad. Bye Lilith! Bye Caleb! I’ll be seeing you around!” Sammy bounced up off the couch and ran out the front door, slamming it behind him and causing Caleb to jolt from where he had watched him go.

Cody brought the plasma pack back up to his lips to hide another smirk. When he looked over to Lilith, her facial expression matched his own. It was then that he knew that he and the Vatores would get along swimmingly.

-

_ july 28 _

Eve showed up at the house a few days later, toting a bag heavy with all of the vampiric tomes she could uncover within the basement of the Spicer bungalow. “Listen,” she said to Sammy, walking past him and heaving the bag unceremoniously onto the sofa, “Mom doesn’t know that I took all these, so I’m gonna have to copy them all and bring them back with me.”

“Eve, I told you to ask Aunt Holly before you helped us!” Sammy whined, covering his face with a hand.

“Sammy, Mom hates vampires. You know that. I know that. Hell, even Seth knows that and he stopped practicing magic months ago. There was no way she was going to let me come help you  _ save  _ them all.” Eve rolled her eyes.

“Damn, Eve,” Cody said, walking into the room and popping open a plasma pack, “for a barely eighteen-year-old, you sure talk big to Sammy.”

“For your information, my dear cousin, I talk this way to everyone.”

“Oh, so you’re just… self-righteous, is that it?”

Sammy stepped in between them. “Hey guys? Wanna not hate each other for a second so that we can figure out some vampire stuff?”

“You know what it’s like when I hate someone. You’ve seen it firsthand.” Cody chuckled. “I just think Eve here needs to be knocked down a few pegs.”

The pink-haired boy thought for a moment, scrunching up his face. “Huh. I guess you were always destined to be a vampire.”

“How so?” Cody asked, not recalling the memory that his cousin seemed to.

“You bit me one time, when we were little.”

Eve let out a single cackle. “Bloodthirsty, even then. That’s hilarious.”

“Ha ha, Sammy, very funny,” Cody said dryly. “Anyway, let’s see if we can find some information. We gotta take this Arya bitch down.”

The three of them each took a tome from the pile and began poring over them, Micah joining them after a short while as well. They read every word of every book Eve brought, but found very little information that pertained to their situation. There was one short passage which referred to the different clans and mentioned the Ambrogio name, but other than that, no one found any information that they deemed particularly useful.

Eve tossed her tome aside and groaned. “Damn it, there’s nothing in here! This is gonna be fucktons harder than I thought.”

“Hey, watch your fucking language. There are children here,” Micah said, reaching over to cover Sammy’s ears jokingly. Sammy swatted at him.

“Micah, I’m being serious.” Eve sent him a look, which regained his attention. “We just spent the last six hours reading these stupid books and we got two pages of vague information that isn’t even really going to help us. I feel like we’re gonna have to get creative.”

“What do you mean?” Cody asked.

“It scares me when you get ideas,” Sammy added.

“No! This one could be actually helpful, I promise!” Eve protested.

“Okay… if you insist, then tell us.” Sammy hugged Micah’s arm close to him, clearly nervous about whatever Eve was about to say. 

Cody braced himself as well. He didn’t know Eve nearly as well as the other two did, but their clear worry made him afraid for what idea the white-haired girl may have come up with.

“Hear me out,” she began. “What if Sammy taught Micah some magic? Just the basics, nothing too intense. It might be helpful.”

“I don’t get how this gives us an advantage,” Cody said.

“It might not, but at least Micah would have some defense should this vampire bitch try and come after him.”

“That’s a good point,” Micah agreed. “I would rather enjoy not dying.”

“Really, Micah? You’d let me teach you magic?” Sammy asked, eyes growing wide. “You never… seemed interested before.”

“I’m well involved in the supernatural now, you know, Short Stack.” He looked pointedly at each of his companions.

“True…”

“It’s almost a crime that I’m still human at this point. I think becoming an amateur witch wouldn’t be the end of my world.”

Sammy beamed. “That’s so fun! I’m so excited!” Micah smiled too, ruffling Sammy’s hair.

Eve cleared her throat. “Um, do you maybe want to pose this to your vampire friends? Another witch here might not necessarily be the best idea.”

“Caleb told me that I was safe to practice here or at their house! They have a tower room in their manor that would be the perfect for teaching. But yeah! I can go over and ask now! I hope I don’t bother Caleb…”

Cody rolled his eyes. “Sammy, I have no idea how you have yet to realize that nothing you do could ever bother that man.”

“I don’t think he’s interested in men, Cody… I don’t know why you keep on saying stuff like that.” Sammy frowned. “But anyways, I’m going to go over. Eve, you can come too, it’ll be good for you to meet them.”

She nodded, and the two cousins walked out the door, leaving Cody and Micah alone on the couch surrounded by the tomes.

“Were these things really completely useless?” Micah asked.

“Not for me,” Cody said. “I’m gonna have to read all of these from cover to cover while I train with Lilith and Caleb, or else I’ll never be able to get a handle on this vampire thing.”

“You’ll get it. You’ve already gotten the hang of the plasma drinking thing, and you’re getting faster. It’s just the sun resistance you really gotta work on.”

“Yeah. That and all the actual ‘powers’ portion of things, dueling, all that stuff. I have a lot to learn, Micah. There’s no way I can do it on my own.”

“Cody.” Micah stood as he said Cody’s name, and moved to sit directly beside him. He looked him straight in the eyes as he continued to speak. “You are the smartest, most stubborn person I’ve ever met in my life. If there was one person that I knew who had the ability to handle this situation and do it  _ well, _ it would without a doubt be you. 

“So quit telling me you’re not going to be able to do this. You have Caleb and Lilith to help you train. Sebastian and Sloane are loyal to a fault and you know they’d do anything for you and Sammy. But most importantly, I need you to know that you have me. I had to sit there and watch you suffer through your turning, and I’m not leaving until this is all over. Got it?”

Cody found that he couldn’t look away as Micah’s warm brown eyes bore into his. He also found that his normal paranoia was nonexistent in that moment. He believed every word.

-

Sammy and Eve walked across the small town and approached the Vatore manor. Sammy couldn’t quite determine why his cousin had such a confident air about her, when he could hardly think straight when it came to the prospect of speaking to Caleb--not that he ever thought particularly straight anyway, of course--but he allowed it only because he knew that she would be able to express her ideas more accurately than he.

She made quick work of introductions, preferring to get straight to the point and remaining just as impatient as she had always been, and explained her thoughts as succinctly as possible to the siblings sitting opposite her.

“Eve, yes? I think that your ideas make a lot of sense, but I worry about bringing a third witch into our town,” Lilith said.

“We know it’s risky, but Micah said himself that he wanted to have some kind of defense mechanism of his own rather than just using us as human shields,” Eve explained.

“Could- could I use your tower to teach him?” Sammy asked. “It’s a perfect space with practically no distractions at all.”

Lilith sighed, but relented. “If you are especially careful.”

Sammy cheered. Eve’s look of pride could not be hidden--it was her idea, after all.

“But Sammy?” Caleb said. “Don’t make him use it if he doesn’t have to.”

“Of course not, I wouldn’t think- Micah’s my best friend, I’d never-”

“I’m not insinuating that you would, I’m just making sure that everything is covered. It will be okay.”

Sammy nodded. “We should probably get back, to let the others know.”

“Yeah, I’d better get back to Windenburg anyway, I can’t imagine Mom is gonna want me out much longer… It was pretty cool to meet you guys, though. Hopefully I’ll be around more often,” Eve said.

The two witches left the Vatore manor in step with one another, but Eve’s longer stride caused her to quickly get far in front of Sammy without realizing. She was talking away, so much that he couldn’t have gotten a word in had he tried.

“But yeah anyway, like I said earlier, I gotta make copies of all those books if you guys wanna keep them. You do want to, right?” she asked, and then finally turned to listen to her cousin’s response. But he was nowhere to be seen.

“…Sammy?” Eve called, looking around. “Sammy, come on. This isn’t funny. Let’s go tell the others what’s going on so I can get home.”

She looked around for a few more minutes, hair glinting bright under the streetlights in the center of town, to no avail. Finally, she decided to head back to the Vatores’, thinking perhaps Sammy had forgotten to tell them something, or left something there. Any reason why he might not still be following her.

“Hey guys?” She poked her head in the front door. “Did Sammy come back here for anything?”

Caleb and Lilith were still sitting on the sofa in the front room chatting, and Seb and Sloane had come downstairs to join them. But Sammy wasn’t there. “No, he followed you out I thought,” Caleb said.

Eve entered the house again and closed the door behind her. “He did, but I turned around to ask him something and he was just gone. I looked around thinking he was playing some kinda trick but he wasn’t there.”

The vampire siblings looked at one another, worried, but didn’t say anything.

“Do you think- It couldn’t have been…” Sloane started to say. “It  _ wouldn’t  _ have been Arya, would it?”

“She wouldn’t be so brazen as to take him in the middle of the street when he was walking with you, would she?” Seb asked.

“If she thought she had power over us, she may have,” Lilith said, frowning. “It would be terribly unfortunate seeing as he is a witch and she may be inclined to inflict harm on him for that reason. But it is possible.”

“Well, then what do we do? That’s my cousin, you know.” Eve crossed her arms. “We can’t just let this vampire bitch get away with kidnapping him.”

“Hold on, Eve. We don’t know that she did this.”

“Who the hell else would have, Sebastian?” Eve cried. “No one knows he’s a witch besides us, so no other vampire would have just grabbed him like that. And it  _ has  _ to be a vampire, because no mortal could have taken him that quickly without my noticing.”

“She has a point, babe,” Sloane said. As she spoke, a small piece of paper came fluttering through the mail slot and landed at Eve’s feet.

She picked it up and read the loopy script aloud. “It says, ‘You will never see your small, idiotic, spellcasting friend again. Thank you for making this so easy for me.’ And then she signed it.”

Caleb’s hands balled into fists. “That bitch,” he said.

Lilith put a hand on his shoulder to calm him. “We must remain logical about this. We must also return to your house, Sebastian, so as to inform the other two of the situation.”

“I’m going to go call my mom,” Eve said.

“Why? If Holly wanted to help, she’d have come with you,” Seb said.

“Because I’m not going to go back to Windenburg and pretend nothing is wrong when my cousin has just been kidnapped. Plus, now someone needs to teach Micah magic and I’m the only witch left.”

“That is a good point,” Caleb said. “If you still want him to learn magic, you must be the one to teach him. Unless your mother is somehow willing to help.”

“My mother is Holly Spicer,” she said, garnering small gasps from the Vatores. “She’s the sage of untamed magic, and one of the most dedicated vampire haters known to the world. There’s no way in hell she’d even try to help. She’d probably kill Cody if she knew about him, and he’s part of the family.”

“Yeah, best to keep that a secret, then,” Sloane said. The rest of the group murmured in agreement.

“I’ll go call her, tell her Sammy’s missing and I’m staying to help look. Nothing about vampires. I promise.” With that, Eve walked outside. The vampires and Seb all shared a look, before collecting themselves for the walk across town. No one wanted to inform Cody or Micah about the disappearance of Sammy, but they all knew it was a must.

-

_ august 10 _

Another two weeks went by, full of brainstorming ways to rescue Sammy and coming up short. Cody isolated himself, poring over the Copypasto versions of the vampiric tomes that Eve had stolen from her mother, searching for  _ anything  _ that he could possibly exploit as a weakness for Arya. Sebastian and Sloane mostly kept to themselves too, unsure of how much use they would be, but occasionally would come out to share ideas with the others or go on plasma fruit runs. Eve and Micah had taken a trip to the magic realm in order to grant Micah the ability to practice magic, and since then the two had been hard at work in the tower of the manor, day in and day out.

But Caleb was working the hardest by far, and no one knew for sure why, though Lilith certainly had her ideas. He was frantic and angry, wanting desperately for there to be some way,  _ any  _ way, to take Arya down and get Sammy back. But he couldn’t find a thing, no one could, and his fury only grew.

Eve and Micah trekked down the stairs of the manor after their latest magic lesson. “You’re actually getting really good, you know,” Eve said. “Sammy didn’t even pick things up this fast and he’s twice as powerful as me after half the time.”

“Really? Damn, I guess that’s good,” Micah replied. His palms still glimmered slightly after winning the last duel he and Eve fought.

“Yeah it is. You’ll be quite a formidable opponent before long. You’re already kicking my ass--” She was cut off by a loud groan and the sound of something heavy hitting the wall. The two ran down the rest of the stairs and to the living room, where Caleb sat, pressing his face into his hands.

“What’s up, Caleb?” Micah asked calmly.

“ _ Nothing  _ is up, that’s the problem! It’s been weeks and we haven’t made an  _ ounce  _ of progress towards rescuing Sammy.”

“It’s not like Arya’s been very obvious about having weaknesses, you know. She’s using  _ our  _ weaknesses against us, and that would be our relationships and our lack of information about who she is and why she’s doing what she’s doing.” Eve sat beside him on the sofa, putting a hand on his shoulder like she’d seen Lilith do so many times. “We’ll get him back. That’s what’s been getting me through, keeping the faith. I’m not sure why it’s affecting you so much, seeing as you just met him and I’ve known him for my whole life, but… it just makes me know that I can trust you. And that’s important to me.”

“We all want him back, Caleb,” Micah said, standing awkwardly to the side. “We’ll get there. We have to.”

“I just wish… I don’t know, I wish that Arya didn’t know who I was so that I could pretend to help her and get Sammy out from the inside.” The vampire’s hand rested on top on Eve’s for a moment before pulling her hand off his arm and standing. He paced back and forth in front of her as he continued. “Like an inside man, who can send back information about Arya and work to get Sammy free. I really feel like that would be the best way. But she already knows I’m trying to stop her, so that won’t work.”

Lilith entered and watched from the kitchen door, having come in from where she had been preparing food for the two mortals. Eve, not noticing her, thought for a bit, looked to Micah, and then stood to stop Caleb in his tracks. “What if I did it?” she asked.

“I can’t ask you to do that, it’s not safe. You’re a witch, and not only that but you’ve barely even graduated high school. I can’t ask you to do that.”

“You don’t have to ask me.”

“Eve-”

“Caleb, seriously. It just makes sense. Micah’s already better than me, I don’t have to teach him stuff anymore. What other use am I? I can go to her and give up information that won’t hurt us. I can get her to trust me, tell me things. And I can find Sammy and work to get him out. It’s a good plan.”

Caleb continued to hesitate. He kept starting sentences only to cut himself off, never finishing a thought or even a word. Eve and Micah just sat and watched, not sure what else to do. The vampire’s fumbling went on for what felt like ages until finally his sister came in and spoke up. 

“Brother.” He instantly stopped and looked at her. “I think that Eve is right. She may be the best person to get into Arya’s good graces. She has magic, and experience with it, so she can defend herself should things go awry. And she looks…” Lilith paused, gave Eve a long once-over, and smirked, “quite unassuming, given her beauty and small stature. Arya will not realize what she is up against.”

Eve raised an eyebrow. “Unassuming? That’s a new one,” she said. “But if you say my ‘beauty’ can get me by, then I suppose.” A mischievous grin crossed her face.

“You suppose… what, exactly?” Caleb asked. “Or should I be afraid to ask?”

“I suppose that since I am apparently so beautiful, I can use that to my advantage.”

“How do you mean?” Lilith asked. Micah just smiled to himself, knowing exactly where Eve was going with this.

“I’ll just have to seduce me a vampire bitch.” Eve shrugged. “Your suggestion, my solution. It’ll work. I can be very persuasive when I want to.”

“If you’re sure, then I think it could be the right thing to do,” Caleb said. “It’s certainly scary, but you seem like you think you’ll have it under control. Vlad’s mansion is at the top of the hill, you can’t miss it. Make sure the others know where you are going, though. Lilith and I cannot deal with their panic if you just go missing.”

“Contrary to the beliefs of my cousins and Tall Boy here, I’m not an idiot. I’ve got this, Caleb. Promise.” She looked directly into his eyes. “Promise.”

Caleb simply nodded and gestured for her to go back home. She turned and left, Micah trailing behind. The two siblings looked at one another once the door shut, Caleb with a worried expression and Lilith with one of irritation. She grumbled something incoherent to herself, turned on her heel, and returned to the kitchen to move the uneaten food into the refrigerator for another day, leaving Caleb curious as to why she reacted in such a way.


	3. recruited

_ august 11 _

Eve approached the foreboding wooden doors of the Straud mansion with more nervous energy than she could ever remember herself feeling before in her life. She tried to spell it away earlier by drinking a potion of emotional stability along with her potion of alluring aura, but it didn’t quite work as hoped and she still felt nervous. She still had hope, however, that Nita’s excellent quality alluring aura potion would work its magic on Arya.

The white-haired witch knocked gingerly on the door, and was soon greeted by the blank stare of a pale, red-haired woman not much taller than herself. The woman, whom Eve could only assume was the elusive Arya Ambrogio herself, said nothing, but sniffed once and curled her lip up in disgust.

“You must be Arya, no?” Eve asked, folding her arms. Arya nodded. “I’m-”

“A Spicer witch, no doubt,” Arya said drily. “To what do I owe this  _ immense  _ pleasure?”

At her eye roll, Eve was about ready to abort the mission and turn back for home. But she knew that she couldn’t do that, for Sammy’s sake.

“Not much better to be fraternizing with vampires, if you listen to my mother. But I think I may have some information that could be of use to you.”

“Why do I have trouble believing you, Spicer?” She purses her lips. “Ah, right, it’s in the name. Your mother is a sage, and for all I know you are just going to pass anything I say right on to her.”

“My mother,” Eve began, putting extra emphasis on the word, “would kill me if she knew I were even speaking to you, let alone that I’ve been living with four vampires for the past month.”

Arya’s eyebrows shot up. “ _ Four? _ Who in the world have those insufferable Vatore siblings recruited?”

“Let me inside and I will tell you all I know.” With a flick of Arya’s wrist, the doors burst open, allowing Eve entry.

This was going to be easier than she thought.

-

Eve revealed everything to Arya that she felt would not be detrimental to their cause. She threw on the charm and worked the effects of Nita’s potion to her full advantage, and it worked better than she’d even been expecting. She and Arya sat in front of the unlit fireplace for what must have been hours, not just spilling secrets but also just getting to know one another. If she weren’t evil and trying to take over Forgotten Hollow, Eve even thought they could have been real friends.

But eventually the conversation had dwindled to its end, and it was about time for Eve to plausibly be leaving. She had to think fast, and in doing so, she made a potentially reckless decision. “ _ Infatuate _ ,” she whispered, and as the spell’s effect took hold, she leaned over and kissed Arya.

Now  _ this, _ she thought, was an experience she’d never had before. Growing up learning magic, her mother hadn’t really given her or her brother time to just be kids. She even went so far as to give them developed, teenage bodies long before they were ready, just to make learning magic easier. (No one besides her direct family and Sammy knew about that. It had caused quite the fight between her parents--but them being Holly and Abel, it didn’t last long.) But with those teenage bodies came teenage hormones. Seth rebelled against their mother and decided to stop practicing magic altogether in order to live a more social life. He began to go out, date girls, and become much happier than he was before. But Eve didn’t let go of her witchy DNA like he did, so she never got that chance.

So, it was safe to say, Eve was completely awed by the sensation of kissing someone for the first time. Under the effects of her spell, it was even more intense than she had imagined. But, even though she felt no real attraction to this girl in her arms, she, like her mother, would do anything to keep her loved ones safe. And this felt nice enough that it was easy to pretend.

“Arya,” she said after a few minutes, quiet and as sultry as she could muster in order to preserve the mood, “I can’t go back. They’ll know where I’ve been, they’ll--I don’t know what they’ll do.” Another kiss. “Let me stay.”

Arya nodded again and bared her fangs, the whites of her eyes clouding over with a dark red. “You don’t need to ask me twice, Spicer.” With their next kiss, Eve felt a prick in her lower lip. With it came an almost euphoric feeling that had the witch dragging Arya off to the nearest bedroom instantly.

Vampire consort? Sounds a lot more terrifying than it actually is, Eve learned that day.

-

_ august 13 _

Sebastian had begun to get exceptionally bored being stuck inside the house all the time. He had never wanted all that much to do with the supernatural; he’d been inadvertently forced to help out in defeating the mother, and had far too much personal stake in the zombie thing for his preference. But he was  _ bored,  _ knowing that he was constantly surrounded by vampires and witches and was literally the only ordinary human in their midst. Even his  _ girlfriend  _ had become a vampire, for Christ’s sake--something he was admittedly still trying to get used to especially seeing as she was barely used to it herself after only a few months. He needed to feel useful for something, whatever that something may be.

And so, against the advice of everyone else he knew in this town, he went out alone, in the middle of the day, to collect plasma fruit--something the vampires were all constantly in need of. He trekked up and down each side of town, stopping only when he finally found the plasma trees near the top of the hill. It was a little closer to the mansion than he had expected, which made him nervous, but he figured he could grab a few fruits and be on his way.

He’d just finished gathering what he supposed was a necessary amount of fruits for his vampire companions when he heard an unfamiliar voice speaking to him. “Ah,” she said, “seems you’ve done my hard work for me. I could use a plasma fruit stockpile.”

“Uh- you must be mistaken. These are for my friends…”

“Yes, of course, Sebastian, is it?” Seb turned in surprise at the mention of his name, and came face to face with a woman whose fierce red eyes made it more clear than anything that she was the one vampire that he didn’t want to have met.

“Uh… are you Arya?” he asked, placing his basket on the ground beside him.

“Smart boy,” she replied. “It’s quite a shame you decided to be so... stupid, coming here on your own today.” The vampire raised a hand and twisted it, causing Seb to freeze in place, panicked. She stepped closer to him, until she was only a matter of inches away from him. “Now you’ll get to see your beloved cousin again, hm?”

He could do nothing but blink, watching in fear as Arya beckoned to another figure out of his line of vision. His fear lessened when he saw Eve appear, but then he heard her say “ _ Minionize, _ ” and his mind went completely blank.

“Eve, dear, will you please welcome our new prisoner to his cell?”

“Come with me, Seb,” Eve said. He followed as she walked to the basement of the mansion. As soon as they were alone and out of earshot of Arya, she stopped him and lifted the spell.

“What the hell, Eve?” he asked, rubbing his forehead to relieve the dull ache that the spell had left him with.

“Gotta keep up appearances, Seb. If she suspects anything, she’ll kill me. You know she will.”

“Sebastian?” someone else said. He looked over to see Sammy, locked in a cell.

“Sammy!” he exclaimed. “I was starting to think I’d never see you again.”

“You guys gotta shut up,” Eve said. “Arya thinks you’re spelled, Seb, so you absolutely cannot talk to each other unless I’m here and I know she’s not gonna come down here.”

“Oh gosh, you’re right,” Sammy said, covering his mouth. “Sorry.”

“You’re the only one who can control the minion spell, right?” Seb asked.

“Yes, but I can’t-”

“Keep me under the spell.”

“Seb, I’m not gonna do that to you. You were under it for less than five minutes and it already affected you.”

“Keep me under the damn spell, Eve. If that’s what needs to happen so that you don’t get caught, keep me under the spell.”

“As much as I hate to admit it, he’s right. Arya comes down here a lot just to… I don’t know, look at me? Like I’m some kind of weird trophy or something. She did it to those vampire girls too, before…” Sammy said, trailing off and looking through the bars at cells which held nothing but blood-stained floors and stakes, the only remnants of the vampires who had been imprisoned there. “If she comes down and he’s not under a spell, it’ll be obvious that you lied to her.”

Eve sighed, casting a glance into the bloody cells. She knew she couldn’t let that happen to Seb, Sammy, or herself. “Fine, you’re right,” she said, relenting. “But don’t expect me to be happy about it.”

“I’m not happy about it either, Eve. But it’s necessary,” Seb said. He held out his arms as if to say, ‘alright, just do it.’

“ _ Minionize, _ ” she said bitterly. Seb once again became catatonic. “Now, sit on the bed and await further orders. I’m sorry.”

Eve watched as he obeyed her order, bit her lip, and looked to Sammy. Her cousin just shrugged. “Just… send Micah a message as soon as you can to let the others know what’s happened. That’s all I can tell you.”

She nodded. “I’ll get one out tonight. We’re working on it. It’s lucky that we decided to teach Micah magic, or else I don’t think we’d be able to make any progress.”

“You’ve got some good ideas, kid,” Sammy agreed. “Now you should go before Arya gets suspicious.”

He shooed Eve off, and as she walked up the stairs, she began to formulate the message to Micah in her mind. No one would be happy to know that Sebastian had gotten himself kidnapped, least of all Sloane. She’d have to word this sensitively.

Eve returned upstairs to where Arya was playing the piano. She draped her arms loosely around the other woman’s shoulders and watched her play for a few moments. It was really too easy to pretend to be falling in love with her. She didn’t even need to keep using spells; Arya was, seemingly, head over heels after only two days.

“That took awhile,” Arya mumbled into Eve’s skin once she finished her piece.

“My lovely cousin decided he needed to argue with me when he saw Sebastian, so I had to shut him up before I could come back.” A simple excuse, Eve thought, but a viable one nonetheless.

“That Samuel Blaze… he just adores arguing with you, doesn’t he?”

“He loves arguing with everyone, unfortunately.”

“Ah, well I suppose that is quite unfortunate. Perhaps he’s afraid of me, for he doesn’t seem to speak to me much at all.”

“Consider yourself lucky,” Eve grumbled, not even fully a lie. Arya planted a kiss on her cheek and then stood from the piano bench.

“I do.”

-

_ meanwhile _

Micah spent most of his time waiting for updates from Eve as of late. Cody still pretty much stayed isolated with the vampire tomes, now just trying to learn every iota of information he could from them. Sloane, Caleb, and Lilith would work with Micah to figure out what to do with the information he received from Eve, but honestly not a ton of it had been extremely helpful thus far. Today, though, Sloane was frantic. Sebastian had somehow sneaked away from the house for some unknown reason and had yet to come back, several hours later.

“He- he can’t have just left on his own, right? He wouldn’t have done that. He knows how dangerous that would be for him,” she insisted.

Caleb walked to her and hugged her. “Just because he knows the dangers does not mean that he didn’t just… decide to go out.”

“But why would he  _ do  _ that?”

“You know that most vampires aren’t sun resistant like Lilith and I, he probably didn’t even realize there was much danger at all.”

“He should know better.”  
“I agree, but that doesn’t mean he does.” With a pat on her shoulder, Caleb went to sit on the couch. “He’ll be back.”

Sloane sighed, but nodded. “I guess you’re right. I should trust him, he’s smart. He’ll be safe.”

Of course, she spoke too soon. At that moment, Micah’s hands began to glimmer a faint gold, a telltale sign of a new message from Eve. He performed the proper spell to access the message, and then called the others to attention. Eve’s voice rang out from the end of his wand as though it were a speaker.

“Hi, quick update… Seb decided it was a good idea to come plasma fruit picking on the mansion’s property? Who sent him up here? But anyways, Arya has him. He’s safe though, under my spell rather than hers so I’m the only one who can control him. Sammy and I have been trying to figure it out. Hope things are coming along okay back there.”

“Fuck,” Sloane said, running a hand through her hair and pulling strands from her loose braid. “I knew something was wrong, Caleb! That red bitch took him, just like she took Sammy, and now we’ve got even less chance of getting them back.”

“Sloane, I’m sorry, but I was trying to stay positive,” Caleb said.

“You want positive? I’m  _ positive  _ that I’m gonna go up there and kick some vampire ass until I get my boyfriend back.” She stalked towards the door. Cody, having overheard the conversation from the top of the stairs, sped down and blocked the door.

“If you go there, Arya will know that Eve contacted us,” he said. “She’ll also know that we have another witch here, which Eve did not tell her. You can’t go there right now, Sloane. I know you want Seb and Sammy back, but we can’t make rash decisions or people will die.”

“Fine. But you assholes had better figure some shit out fast, because I’m not losing him again.” She turned, flipping her braid over her shoulder, and ran up the stairs.

Micah looked at Caleb, who looked equally as distraught as Sloane, though he was much quieter about it. “We’ll get them back, Caleb,” he said.

“Will we?” He frowned.

Cody stepped forward and sat next to Micah on the couch, perhaps subconsciously placing a hand on the latter’s thigh. “We will,” he said. “I finished reading the last tome today. Did you know there’s a cure for vampirism?”

Caleb’s eyes widened. “Yes, but no one I know of has ever actually created or seen one be created.”

“If anyone can do it, Cody can do it. That I’m sure of,” Micah said. Cody smiled softly.

“I just… I don’t know why I feel quite this way, nor have I ever in my centuries of life felt this way, but I-”

Cody held up a hand. “You don’t have to say it, Caleb. It’s very obvious how much you care for my cousin. I appreciate it more than you know, and though I may not understand your emotion completely, I do understand that you have more humanity than any other vampire I’ve read about in any of those books.”

Caleb could feel himself getting emotional at the redhead’s words. “I don’t think you know how grateful I am to hear that. I’ve been feeling my humanity slipping away, inch by inch. Saving Sloane’s life gave me a better grip on it than I’ve had in a long time, but meeting Sammy… it may have hardly been a month since the five of you arrived, but I feel more for Sammy than I knew I was capable of.”

Micah’s hand rested on top of Cody’s during Caleb’s speech. “I know how you feel,” he said afterwards, not directly acknowledging Cody or their hands, but giving him a slight squeeze. “I felt that way for Sammy once too, but he never quite wanted me in the same way. Thankfully, I’ve moved on from that,” another squeeze, “but he’s still my best friend. You would be good for him, Caleb, I can tell.”

“I’ll start working on the vampire cure as soon as I can- I think that’s our best shot for defeating Arya.” Cody stood, letting his hand slip out from underneath Micah’s, and walked back towards the stairs. His hand tingled, as though touching the blond had sent magic coursing through him. He smiled at the feeling as it lingered… and forgive him if he took a few minutes’ break from the vampire stuff to do a bit of an introspective internet search.

Pansexual vampire seemed like a cool identity to claim, he decided.

-

_ august 20 _

Cody worked away in his makeshift lab area for days, trying and failing to create multiple versions of the vampire cure that he had read about. If he was isolated from the group before, now he literally only came out to grab a chunk of plasma fruit and eat it before heading back to work. It didn’t appear to be taking much of a toll on him, however; the ability to forgo sleep had been incredibly helpful for him.

Micah had taken to falling asleep on the bed that was meant to be Cody’s, watching him toil tirelessly over the little metal table until he could not possibly keep his eyes open any longer. On this particular night, though, he reached over and tapped the vampire on the shoulder. He stopped working immediately as a slight shudder appeared to travel down his spine, and then turned to face the blond.

“Yes?” he asked, only mildly annoyed at the interruption.

“You’ve been at this literally nonstop since last Sunday, don’t you think you deserve a break every once in a while?” Micah asked.

“Sammy and Seb don’t have the time for me to waste on taking a break,” Cody answered.

“You might not actually have to sleep, but I’m sure your brain could still benefit from a little rest. C’mon, come lie with me.”

The redhead looked at the bed. It would have looked inviting regardless of whether or not it had a tall blond lying on top of it, but that addition was just… icing on a cake that Cody couldn’t even eat anymore. “Fine,” he said, relenting, “I guess I could probably take a little bit of a break.”

He joined Micah on the bed, lying flat and crossing his arms like he would in a coffin. This earned him a smack on the arm.

“Not that that hurt, but… what was that for?” he asked, opening just one eye to look up at Micah.

“I didn’t mean for you to become a damn corpse, Jett.” Micah chuckled. “I meant, come talk to me, hang out. Do something other than science for a little while.”

Cody lowered his arms and rolled to the side, accidentally way more into Micah’s personal space than he had intended. But now that he was here… he wasn’t planning on shying away. So he draped a hand across the blond’s waist and propped his own chin up with the other. “This better, Granados?” he asked, failing to hide a smirk.

“What do you think?” He grabbed the hand at his waist and interlocked Cody’s fingers with his own. “Either I’m way more subtle than I thought, or you are the most unobservant creature I have ever met in my life.”

“Try ‘notices everything you do but is too paranoid to believe it’s real,’” Cody replied.

“Well, it’s been a week since I was the clearest I could possibly be about the situation, and you still haven’t done a thing about it.”

“I don’t know…” Cody said, teasing. “I think you could be a little more clear.” The tingling sensation from the last time Micah had held his hand had returned, and Cody wasn’t really sure what to expect from any  _ more  _ physical contact, but when he rolled them over so that Cody’s body was completely caged below Micah, he felt like his entire body was glimmering like the witch’s hands did when he cast a spell.

“I was beginning to think I was going to have to cast an infatuation spell on you to get you to understand,” Micah admitted. “I’m glad I was wrong.”

Before Cody could respond, the blond leaned down and tentatively pressed his lips to his. And then he couldn’t respond with words, but his  _ body _ instantly did so without him even having to think about it. He kissed Micah back fiercely, none of his prior paranoia about these feelings even attempting to surface.

When they broke the kiss, an indeterminate amount of seconds later, Micah said, “Okay, you can go back to work now, Jett,” with a cockeyed grin. But Cody had other ideas. Perhaps the vampire cure could wait one more night after all.


	4. reversed

_ august 28 _

Eve was thankfully nowhere around Arya when her hands began to glimmer with a message from Micah. She had been dead asleep, feeling drained from Arya’s latest feeding session, and the sensation in her hands had awoken her.

Her fellow witch had never sent a message in the middle of the night like this, when Arya was without fail awake and plotting, and Eve couldn’t help but worry that something bad had happened. She immediately accessed the message. It was short, for which she was grateful. “Cody found a cure for vampirism,” Micah said. “Meet him near the border of Strangerville just before dawn, he’ll bring it to you.”

A cure for vampirism? She vaguely remembered mention of such a thing in the tomes, but she didn’t know it was actually  _ possible. _ Could stopping Arya really be that simple?

Eve tossed and turned anxiously for the next few hours, unable to sleep any longer despite her fatigue. She tried to brainstorm ways to be able to leave the mansion without arousing Arya’s suspicions, coming up short, and eventually decided to just hope for the best.

She dressed in leggings and an oversized sweatshirt (to hide the vial in, of course) and treaded down the stairs, taking deep breaths and trying to calm her nerves. As she expected, Arya was seated in front of the still-unlit fireplace, filing her fingernails into points. It was still only about six in the morning, so the vampire looked up in surprise when she heard Eve enter.

“What are you doing awake, dear?” she asked.

“I couldn’t get back to sleep,” Eve replied. Not a lie, but she still felt guilty saying it. “I’m going to go for a walk and try to tire myself out again.”

“Are you sure? You could be seen by your family or the Vatores.”

“I’ll be careful. And besides, the vampires won’t be out this close to dawn, and Micah won’t be awake this early.”

“Caleb is fully sun resistant, Eve,” Arya warned.

“He won’t bother me, he barely even met me.”

“If you’re sure… just, don’t be out too long? I will worry.”

The words broke Eve’s heart a little. She might just have been a little too good at keeping up the ruse in the end, but she had developed a deep care, and even a love, for the vampire woman, and felt terrible for betraying her in such a way as she was about to. Even though doing so meant saving her cousins from their basement prison, and protecting Forgotten Hollow in the process… she couldn’t help it.

“Promise,” she said, hoping that she was successfully hiding her grimace. “I’ll be back before dawn.” As she turned and left the room, Eve could feel her throat getting tight. She tried to swallow around it, make it go away, but it wouldn’t. By the time that she shut the front door, she was wiping tears off her cheeks with her sleeve.

It took her twenty-five minutes to walk to the other side of town, plenty of time to pull herself together before she met up with Cody. He was already there waiting for her, and she was again nearly overcome with emotion at the sight of his familiar ginger hair. She ran to him and hugged him briefly.

“Gosh, it’s been forever,” she said.

Cody broke the hug and looked at her with a grimace. “You smell like her,” he said.

“Of course I do. I’ve barely seen anyone but her, unless you count the five minutes a week I can manage to go see Sammy and Seb. What do you expect?”

“No, Eve, you  _ smell  _ like her. Have you been letting her feed from you?”

“Yeah, a couple times… is that bad?”

He wrinkled his nose. “Not for  _ you,  _ obviously. Just unappealing for me or any of the others to want to be around you after this, and kind of shitty considering you’re not loyal to her.”

“I guess you’re right, but it was the first way I could think of for her to let me stay, and it worked so I kept it up.” Eve rolled her eyes. “Anyway, I told her I’d be back within an hour and I don’t think you want her to come looking, so where’s this cure you made?”

Cody held up a vial full of some sort of milky liquid that looked entirely unpleasant to drink. “You’ll have to get creative to get her to drink it,” he said. “It was off-putting for me to even have been near so much garlic and shit while I was making it.”

“How the hell am I supposed to get her to drink it then?”

“Like I said before. You’ve gotta be creative. If you can get her to fall for a Spicer, you can get her to drink this nasty shit.” He handed her the vial. “You should head back. Let Micah know how it goes.” He sped off, not quite as fast as she’d seen the Vatores move, but far more quickly than Cody ever would have normally. It threw her for a loop as she took another glance at the vial in her hand. How was she supposed to do this? She mulled it over the whole way back.

Arya kissed Eve hello when she arrived back at the mansion, a sweet gesture that caused an ache in her chest, and then promptly headed to her coffin to rest for the morning. Eve took advantage of the time alone to go down to the basement and ask Sammy for advice.

The sound of her footsteps roused Sammy from his sleep. He rubbed his eyes as she entered. “What time is it?” he asked.

“Dawn,” Eve replied, stopping in front of his cell.

“Ew. Why are you awake?”

“Cody found a cure for vampirism. He gave it to me.”

“Oh, gosh. What is it? Can I see?”

Eve pulled out the vial and stuck her hand through the bars of the cell to show it to him. “Cody said it reeks of garlic and was revolting for him to even be around, so I have no idea how to get Arya to drink it.”

Sammy cast his eyes over to the left into the neighboring cell, though perhaps unintentionally. Eve followed his glance, only to see Sebastian laying limply on the floor.

She gasped, pulling her arm back again. “What the hell happened to him?”

“She… she’s been drinking from him,” Sammy explained. “She tried to use me once, but said my blood tastes bad and never tried again.”

“How much? How have I never noticed?”

“She does it at night, when I guess you’re sleeping. It wakes me up and I pretty much have to watch… it’s miserable. He probably wouldn’t be so weak if he’d been getting proper food, but all we get is what little you’re able to bring us.”

“How long has this been going on, Sammy?”

Sammy looked sheepish as he said, “How long has he been here?”

“Oh, god… Seb, I’m so sorry,” Eve said, though he could not really understand her through both the minion spell and his physical weakness. “I gotta figure something out. I thought it was just me she was feeding from, I-”

“What? You  _ let  _ her do that to you?”

“Of course I do. She thinks I’m completely devoted to her, what else would you have me do? Get caught?”

“Can you just… tell me it doesn’t hurt him?”

“It doesn’t hurt, I swear. I wouldn’t let her do it to me if it was painful. He’s only weak because she’s taken so much from him.” No, it was in fact quite the opposite of painful, but she wasn’t about to explain that to her cousin.

“Would eating help him?” Sammy asked. “I’m fine, but he needs something.”

Eve paused for a second, debating. How long would Arya be resting in her coffin?

She decided it was long enough. “ _ Delicioso, _ ” she said, and a grilled cheese sandwich appeared before her. Not the best nutrition, but easy enough for Seb to eat in his weakened state. She maneuvered the sandwich through the bars of Seb’s cell and placed it on the floor in front of him before commanding him to eat. She waited until she was sure he was capable of doing so before turning back to Sammy.

“I have an idea,” he said once she walked back over to him.

“An idea?” she asked.

“For the cure serum. She’s fed from you, so you know she likes the taste of… you. Mix it into some of your blood and give it to her that way.”

Eve’s eyes lit up. “That’s perfect! I’ve prepared her blood wine with packs she had in the fridge, I can just do that. Why didn’t I think of that? Thank you!” Before Sammy could even speak, his cousin was gone again, leaving him hoping his idea was good enough to work. It had to be--they had no other chance.

-

That night, Eve concocted the drink with shaking hands, even going so far as to use her own blood rather than one of the packs from the refrigerator. She poured herself a glass of red wine as well, hoping it would calm her enough so her nerves did not draw Arya’s attention. She treated it like a surprise for her vampire companion--a night of relaxation, a break from plotting and scheming.

She took the glass gratefully, and left a red lipstick mark on the rim as she sipped. Eve instantly felt better as Arya hummed, clearly pleased and unaware of the garlicky extra ingredient. “You used your own blood,” she quipped. “I do hope you didn’t hurt yourself too badly to do so.”

Eve looked down at the wadded up towel she gripped in her left hand, wishing she had Sammy’s affinity for healing magic. “Nothing that won’t heal.”

Arya seemed satisfied with this answer, and responded with a kiss to Eve’s temple and a “Thank you, my dear,” before returning to her seat before the fireplace.

Eve found herself gulping down her own wine very quickly, just waiting for the effects of the vampire cure to kick in. Cody hadn’t said she needed to drink it all for it to work, but he also didn’t define how much she  _ would  _ need, leaving Eve to simply wait in anticipation.

It took about half the glass.

Arya doubled over and cried out in pain; Eve practically felt it in her own gut. Tears sprang to her eyes and she could do nothing but watch as her vampire companion became… well, just her companion.

“I’m so sorry,” Eve whispered, barely even recognizing that she had spoken. “I didn’t know this would be so painful for you.”

Arya looked up at her, tears tinged red dripping down her own cheeks. Her dark form was visible, her eyes dark and the tears making her look that much more terrifying. “You… what did you do to me?” she gasped.

“What I had to do to protect my family and my friends. I didn’t want to hurt you. You have to believe me.” Eve could barely get the words out. She knew that this betrayal, though heartbreaking enough for her, would be devastating for Arya, especially now knowing that it gave her such crippling pain. She collapsed to the floor beside her, not sure that there was anything she could do but wanting desperately for the red-haired woman to know that she was still there for her.

The next words came through Arya’s teeth as she bit down on nothing. “Get the fuck away from me.”

“I’m not leaving you to do this on your own,” Eve said, stubborn as ever. “Keep… keep drinking, it might make it happen faster.”

“Make what happen faster? Are you intending to kill me?”

“No, uh… quite the opposite really. It’s a vampire cure.”

“Well, it’s absolutely horrific, whatever it is!”

“So drink the damn blood wine before you can’t anymore, dammit! I didn’t want this to be this way. Cody didn’t warn me--”  
Arya’s words came out panicked and gasping as she struggled to breathe through the twisting of her stomach, but it was still clear how angry and betrayed she felt. “Of course this was _his_ doing!” There were several trails of bloody tears across her cheeks at this point. Eve couldn’t help but regret this, wish she had been loyal. She hated watching Arya suffer at all, let alone at her own hand.

“I needed to protect them, Arya, I couldn’t let you hurt them. I had to do something. This was Cody’s idea, but it was the only idea we had,” she said, trying to suppress her own crying.

“I… trusted you, Eve. You are the only one I trusted, and you--” She broke off, gasping. Drops of bloody tears splashed onto the carpet as she doubled over again. Instinctively, Eve grabbed for her in an attempt to offer comfort. With all the force she could muster in her weakened state, Arya shoved at her consort, sending both of them falling. “I said get away from me!” she screamed, breaking off into more gasping sobs.

Eve could only watch, no longer able to hide her own cries. She muffled them with her left hand and, having dropped her bloody towel somewhere, pressed the open wound into her skin accidentally. The sting was unpleasant, but she left it there anyway.

She deserved to feel even the smallest portion of the pain she’d caused Arya. Arya, whose eyes had begun to roll back into her head as she blacked out.

Eve immediately grew alarmed. She flung the coffee table away from the other woman’s unconscious form and went to kneel down beside her. However, she turned and saw Arya’s body floating a few inches off the floor, shrouded in black smoke. She went rigid, limbs sticking out from the cloud, and the screech she let out made Eve physically nauseous. Then, the smoke disappeared and Arya fell back to the floor.

Her face was still pallid, but the black veins around her mouth from her dark form had disappeared, as had her black clawed fingernails. Eve didn’t move until she saw the ragged rise and fall of her chest. When she did, she collapsed to the floor. “Arya?” she said, hoping to be able to wake her.

After a few moments, Arya’s eyes fluttered open, irises now a deep shade of brown rather than the red Eve had grown accustomed to. Eve, suddenly overwhelmed with relief that  _ at least she was alive, _ caressed the other woman’s cheek. She leaned into the touch for a moment before seemingly coming to her senses.

Arya shoved Eve again, though now that she lacked her vampire strength, it didn’t make much difference. She looked at her hands, confused, before trying the same maneuver she had used on Sebastian weeks before, to freeze Eve in place. It did not work, of course, and this realization sent Arya into a rage.

She launched herself at Eve and attempted to fight her physically since she no longer could with vampire powers. It caught Eve off guard at first, but the witch was quickly able to gain the upper hand. She cast a spell which knocked Arya unconscious again, and then, still crying, picked her up and carried her to the basement.

Sammy perked up at the sound of her sobs, heard from the top of the stairs. But he asked no questions as his cousin unlocked his and Sebastian’s cells and locked Arya inside one of them. She pulled herself together enough to remove the spell on Seb, and then ran to Sammy and hugged him tighter than she probably ever had.

They had won… so why didn’t it feel like a victory?

-

The rest of the gang had all spent the day at the Vatore manor, the air growing progressively more tense throughout the day as they waited for the inevitable.

Sloane was particularly irritable, knowing that this could be her only chance to get Sebastian back alive. The Vatore siblings, though they did believe the cure would work, were still off in a corner on their own, whispering about potential backup plans and getting on Cody’s nerves. He knew that it would work, because he had worked for two weeks to perfect it and wouldn’t have given it to Eve if he didn’t know that it was perfect. Micah just kept staring at his hands, waiting for them to get the familiar gold shimmer that just wasn’t coming.

No one spoke to each other except Caleb and Lilith, and occasionally Sloane since she at this point was an honorary Vatore; they were all just waiting on Eve.

It wasn’t until well into the night that they heard anything. And it didn’t come from Micah’s glowing hands, but instead the ringing of his cell phone. Alarmed, he picked it up and exited the room, leaving only silence in his wake. No one even breathed, not that they needed to anyway.

The blond came back in a few minutes later, looking utterly shocked. “It worked,” he said. “That was Sammy. He and Seb are free from their cages and Arya’s locked up. Seb’s not doing too well, though, he said, and Eve can’t stop crying and won’t tell him why. He wants us all to head up there.”

“What do you mean, he’s not ‘doing too well?’” Sloane snapped.

Micah, annoyed at her rude question, said, “Being a human blood bag for two weeks will do that to a guy.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “Then let’s fucking go, come on! Bring one of those need potions you made last week.”

“Sloane is right,” Lilith said. “If Sebastian is weak from blood loss, he will need nourishment immediately. We must go.”

The five of them quickly gathered their things and headed up the hill to the mansion. Micah and Cody piggybacked Caleb and Lilith so they didn’t have to move at human pace, and the three faster vampires all sped over, arriving at the mansion in mere seconds. The wooden doors were wide open, but they remained cautious as they entered. In the front hallway stood Sammy, hair now magicked back to his natural color.

He didn’t even get a chance to say anything before Caleb was in front of him and wrapping him in a tight embrace. “I would not have stopped until we rescued you,” he mumbled into Sammy’s ear. “Even if I’d have been in it alone. I would have done anything.”

Sammy pulled back to look Caleb in the eyes. “Any- anything?” Caleb just nodded.

The witch cast a glance back at Micah, and was surprised to find him with Cody tucked into his side, watching him and Caleb interact with a soft smile. He took this as a sign, or confirmation even, that what he was about to do was right. And so he craned his neck up and rose up on his tiptoes to plant his lips against Caleb’s.

The vampire pulled back immediately, looking at him in what appeared to be shock and awe. But it only lasted a moment before Caleb was pulling him back in and kissing him with twice as much passion. Sammy couldn’t help but smile into the kiss, only pulling back when his teeth clacked against Caleb’s fangs. They held one another and smiled, ignoring the whooping and teasing from their families and friends.

It was then that Eve came up the stairs, practically dragging Seb along with her and still sniffling a little bit. It was Sloane’s turn to part from the group, racing over to her boyfriend and lowering him to her lap on the floor. She cradled his head in her hands, running her fingers through his hair and muttering something to him softly. Eve looked to the group, unsure of what to do to help him and still trying to mask her unhappiness--very difficult to do with the red ringing her eyes and adorning the tip of her nose.

Micah locked eyes with her and walked over, carrying the potion he had been advised to bring with him. He held it out to her and she snatched it gratefully. She bent down and tipped the beaker to Seb’s lips, trying to force him to drink it. After a moment, she managed to get him to drink the whole thing. He breathed out a wisp of apple-scented green smoke and blinked rapidly, sitting upright.

Sloane began to cry, tears shiny like the plasma fruit she lived off, and threw herself into Seb’s arms. “Thank god,” she said through sobs, “I really couldn’t lose you again, Sebastian.” The hug she gave him was so bone-crushingly tight that he cried out. She apologized profusely, but it sent them both into a fit of giggles.

“I love you so much,” he told her. She returned the words and they kissed sweetly, sitting on the floor side by side. Eve and Micah walked away, leaving them on their own and returning to where Cody and Lilith stood by the door.

Lilith wrapped Eve in a hug. “I do not know what is plaguing your mind, Eve, but I do know that you have done Forgotten Hollow a huge service today. You have saved us.” Without thinking, she dropped her lips to Eve’s forehead briefly. The white-haired woman blushed and stepped away, but looked back to Lilith with a shy half-smile, seemingly all she could muster.

Cody pulled Micah back into his side. The blond smiled. “How’s it feel to know you saved a town three times?” he asked.

“Pretty damn good, I’d say,” Cody replied.

“You’re incredible, Cody Jett.”

But of course, nothing could remain peaceful for too long. As Cody and Micah stood and observed the happy reunions, another presence manifested behind them. They turned, only to be face to face with another vampire, whose dark form was utterly terrifying. Micah jolted away, but Cody stared the stranger down.

“Uh, guys? We have a visitor,” he called, never taking his eyes off her.

Everyone paused in their celebration to look in his direction, and then immediately froze. From behind him, Cody heard Lilith speak almost completely in sync with her brother.

“You have  _ got  _ to be fucking kidding me.”


	5. revealed

“You know this chick?” Eve said to Lilith quietly.

The woman grinned maniacally. “Lilith, Caleb! How very lovely to see you again!” she said. The sickly sweet tone of her voice was jarring coming out of this vampire’s mouth, especially juxtaposed with the bloody, extended corners of her mouth.

“I cannot say I feel the same,” Caleb said, spitting the words through his teeth.

“What are you doing here, Miss Hell?” Lilith asked. “You abandoned us decades ago.” At the name, Sloane’s attention was piqued and she knew she needed to back away. She helped Sebastian up off the floor and the two moved to the far end of the hall.

“Ah, my children, I have been waiting so many years to be able to find you again. It was well past time for Vladislaus Straud’s legacy to end here in Forgotten Hollow, and I thought that perhaps if I took over, you would finally realize that I had been right all along.”

“Not a damn chance,” Caleb said.

“Hold on.” Eve spoke up, stepping in front of Lilith. “What do you mean, if  _ you  _ took over?”

Miss Hell laughed. It sounded inhuman. “You really  _ are  _ a stupid little girl, aren’t you? Not much more can be expected from a Spicer witch, I presume.”

“For fuck’s sake, tell me what you mean,” she demanded through her teeth. Lilith placed a calming hand on the small of her back, but she shook it off immediately.

“I  _ mean, _ it was altogether too simple for me to command little Arya Ambrogio to do it all for me. It was a real shame that you and your magic had to come in and interrupt, though. Forgotten Hollow would already be mine if you hadn’t gotten in my way. And now, the poor thing is  _ human,  _ and your pitiful little gang is still going to lose.” She pouted, an unnatural expression to see on a face like hers.

“You’re a fucking bitch, do you know that?” Eve said, fighting back tears again. “You’re a bitch and a damn coward, having to hypnotize someone into doing your dirty work. You should have killed Vlad yourself if you wanted him dead so badly. You didn’t have to  _ ruin  _ Arya’s life like that!”

“Being a ‘bitch’ gets me what I want, Miss Spicer. You should take a lesson sometime.” Her nearly white irises seemed to glow as she bore them into Eve’s pink ones.

A shower of purple sparkles cascaded over Miss Hell in that moment. Her eyes crossed and she could no longer focus properly. Eve looked knowingly over to Sammy, who just shrugged.

She shrugged back. “ _ ZipZap, _ ” she whispered, sending shocks in the evil vampire’s direction and increasing her dazedness. It wouldn’t last long thanks to the vampires’ advanced healing, but it would hopefully be long enough.

“That’s it, Miss Hell.” Caleb kissed Sammy’s cheek in thanks and stepped forward, letting his dark form ripple into view. “This is the last chance you have. Give up.”

“A duel? Very bold of you, my son.” She smirked.

“Everyone, back away,” Caleb said. “For your own safety.”

What ensued looked, to those watching, to be nothing more than an oversized cloud of black smoke floating near the ceiling. No one could see what was actually happening, and it had everyone on edge. But after a few minutes, Miss Hell threw Caleb to the floor by his neck and left an indent in the floor itself. He groaned as she floated gently back to her feet, laughing.

Barely conscious for the moment, Caleb called Lilith to him with the double flick of one finger. “Kick her ass,” he struggled to say.

“Gladly, dear brother,” she replied, slipping into her own dark form and whipping around to face Miss Hell. “This should be fun.”

Another vampire duel followed. But this time, everyone got the chance to watch Lilith slam Miss Hell into the carpet by the throat and hold her there. The group all cheered for her and waited to see her finish her off.

However, Eve had a different idea. Out of her sweatshirt pocket she pulled another vial of vampire cure, approached and held it in front of Miss Hell’s face. “Guess it’s lucky I made some more of these, hm? The less you use, the more it hurts…”

Lilith took the vial. “Drink this,” she said, “or it’s a stake through your heart.”

“I suppose you’ll have to kill me,” Miss Hell replied, wheezing from the pressure still on her throat.

She moved her hand from the other vampire’s throat to grip her jaw and force it open. She dumped about a third of the vial into Miss Hell’s throat and made her swallow. She left her free to writhe on the floor in pain, and stood to give Eve another hug.

In addition to Miss Hell’s whimpers, Arya’s voice could be heard from the basement. Eve froze for a moment and then slipped away down the stairs. There was no need for the former vampire to be imprisoned any longer.

They were all free from the terror that was Miss Hell.

-

Eve stayed downstairs with Arya until she could no longer hear Miss Hell’s howls of pain, apologizing profusely and begging for forgiveness. When the two finally returned to the front hall, it was in time for the now human Miss Hell to slowly rise to her feet. “You are  _ miserable _ !” she cried. “Every last one of you! This town was supposed to fall under my reign.  _ I  _ was supposed to become the grand master vampire and lord over everyone!”

Caleb struggled to stand as well, helped up by his sister. They hugged tightly, ignoring everything Miss Hell was saying. When no one replied to her, she let out a guttural screech, turned on her heel, and walked out.

“You did it,” Caleb said to Lilith. “You finally slayed our demon.”

Eve, watching this exchange, smiled. There was one more thing they needed. “Hey,” she said, approaching them, “I think you’ve got one more chip on your shoulder that could use a cure.” The siblings watched, wide-eyed, as the witch procured a handful more small vials of the vampire cure from her pocket.

“Where did you get all that?” Cody asked her.

“A good old Copypasto,” Eve explained. “I thought it might be a good idea to have a few extras in case the first one didn’t work out. Clearly, they’re still needed.”

“Thank you, Eve. You have no idea how much this means,” Caleb said.

Lilith just kept staring at the vials, unmoving and silent.

“Uh, Lilith? You okay?” Eve asked.

The words seemed to shock her into movement again. Without a word, and without a thought, she rushed forward and pressed her mouth to Eve’s, putting every ounce of emotion into it. Eve pulled back in surprise, cheeks a fierce red as she turned to look at Arya. The red-haired woman’s expression was nothing but pleased at the exchange she had obviously just witnessed. Lilith moved a bit away from Eve, embarrassed.

No one said a word until Caleb cleared his throat. “Lilith, shall we?” he said.

“As they say, bottoms up,” Eve remarked. “Just, uh… drink it fast and drink it all. Seems like it hurts like hell.”

They obeyed, and though it was still difficult to watch them be in pain, it lasted so much less time before they were shrouded in smoke just as Eve had seen Arya become.

Arya, who had come to stand by Eve again during the Vatores’ transformation, quipped, “You were right. I should have drank the damn wine.”

Eve couldn’t help but smile. “Sometimes I am right, you know.”

A few minutes later, once Caleb and Lilith could properly walk again, everyone left the mansion, knowing that it would now remain empty for who knew how long. It was literally closing the door on another chapter of their lives as Cody flung the massive wooden door shut.

For the Vatores, this meant readjusting to the humanity they had lost. For Arya, it meant learning humanity for the first time; having been born a vampire, she had no idea what it was like to be human. For Sebastian and Sloane, it meant finally getting to be together, with no barriers and no obstacles. For the Villareal-Spicers, it meant trying to figure out how to explain to Holly what the last month had entailed. And for Cody and Micah, it meant trying to see if their newfound relationship came from the situation, or from real feelings.

Only time would tell. But everyone was ready to enter the new chapter.


	6. epilogue: reinvented

_ two years later; november 23 _

The Villareal mansion was really the only proper place to host a gathering of the magnitude of the gang and their families. After the events surrounding Forgotten Hollow, none of them wanted anything to do with the town any longer--except for Cody, of course, but it still wasn’t particularly safe for Micah, so he agreed with only a  _ little  _ reluctance to go back to Willow Creek. Reuben had been alone for a little over a month and it was about time to give him company once more. Micah returned to Strangerville for a few days, just long enough to gather his teenage sister and their meager belongings and tote them back to Willow Creek and the Callery-Aiken “dream house.”

When they arrived at the mansion, Arya, Eve, Seth, and their parents were already there, having just had to walk over from the nearby bungalow. They milled around in various rooms, chattering with the inhabitants of the mansion, which now included not only Sammy, but the Vatore siblings as well. Caleb and Sammy were in the kitchen cooking a lovely Harvestfest meal, which consisted not only of a turkey and various vegetables, but also a bowl of plasma fruit salad so that the two vampires could eat something as well.

It may have been two years since they left Forgotten Hollow, but Cody and Sloane had not aged a single day, and never would again. Eve had spelled up enough cures for them both to have one as well, but Cody refused, and Sloane, though she wished she could be human again, knew that it was too much of a risk for her to try. Eve still kept the vials in case, but they never came in handy again.

Cody followed Micah into the kitchen. They chatted with the host couple and watched as they maneuvered around one another in the cooking area. Micah’s hand rested on top of Cody’s on the counter, squeezing subconsciously every time he laughed or smiled. Though Cody’s heart did not beat, it still swelled with warmth at the sensation.

The idle conversation lasted throughout the house until just before dinner was to be served, when the doorbell sounded yet again. Everyone immediately stopped what they were doing to go stand in the foyer as Sloane entered, followed by Sebastian, his sister, and her new husband, Makoa. The addition of the two small children curled in their mothers’ arms was what everyone truly cared about, however. This was the first time that any of them had been able to travel from Sulani since Sloane had become fully sun resistant about a year and a half before, and so the first time that any of the others were able to meet the babies, each now almost a year old.

“Everyone,” Sloane said, turning the little girl around in her arms and holding up one of her tiny hands, “meet Callie May Browne.” Callie burbled happily as her mother waved her hand around. “I know you’re all dying to hold her, but… I’d like it if her namesake was the first.” The group all looked around at each other, but Sloane’s gaze remained fixed on one former vampire.

“Sloane… you named your baby after me?” Caleb asked, stepping forward and taking the little girl in his arms.

“If it weren’t for you, I would’ve been a ghost for eternity. I truly have you and your sister to thank for my life, and for the life of my baby. It made perfect sense to me, and Seb too.”

Sammy wrapped his arms around Caleb from behind and tiptoed to hook his chin over his shoulder and peek at the baby, eyes glassy with tears. “She’s so beautiful, Sloane. She looks just like you, I can already tell.”

“Hey, she’s my kid too,” Seb said jokingly. Callie giggled at the sound of her father’s voice.

“Couldn’t tell ‘til she did that,” Sammy said.

“What about this one, Sammy?” Sage asked, bouncing her own baby a little to make him let out a giggle of his own. “Can you see both of us in little Kai?”

Sebastian let out a gasp of mock indignation as Sammy said, “A hundred percent!” Everyone burst into laughter.

After a little while of everyone meeting the babies and Sage introducing everyone to Makoa, they all sat down to eat. The table was set beautifully, at Arya’s insistence, decorated with fall-colored napkins and placemats, with a leafy centerpiece. She had taken to the human holiday traditions quickly and become quite fond of them, especially the decorating part, and went all-out decorating both the mansion and the Spicer bungalow for every single holiday.

Holly had not taken the news of the big battle in Forgotten Hollow very well, nor the news that their new housemate was none other than an Ambrogio vampire turned human. However, in her and Abel’s old age, it had become more difficult to do things around the house, and with Seth off at university for three-quarters of the year, she agreed to let Arya stay so long as she helped with chores. Eve didn’t let that happen very often, of course--she overused the Scruberoo and Repairio spells (and secretly taught her red-haired companion a couple spells of her own, just for fun).

Most of the time, Eve and Arya would take the short walk over to the mansion and spend their days with Sammy and the Vatores. Ever since Lilith kissed Eve, the two had grown closer, but rather than this realization pushing Arya away, it almost seemed to pull her closer. Sammy liked to joke around and call them a ‘throuple,’ but all three women detested the word to the point where Eve would frequently use a spell to make Sammy unable to talk after he said it.

But truthfully, though they hated it, that  _ was _ perhaps the best word to describe them. As Arya took her seat at the table between Lilith and Eve, she gave Eve a peck on the lips and grabbed hold of Lilith’s hand. It raised some eyebrows, mostly Makoa’s. The poor man had never met these people before, and in fifteen minutes had already been exposed to far more nontraditional things than his life on Sulani could have ever shown him--vampires, witches, and polyamorous relationships, to name a few. Even the debrief that the Callery-Aiken siblings had given him on the ride over from the airport was not nearly enough.

-

Halfway through dinner, when Cody took his last bite of plasma fruit, he drew the attention of the rest of the group with a stereotypical butter knife to (Micah’s) glass. “Guys, I have an announcement. Or, well,  _ we  _ have an announcement,” he said, looking at his boyfriend with a smile. 

“As you all know, I’ve been doing some research up on the planet Sixam. Thankfully, my speed helps me finish collecting samples quickly, and gives me time to explore. In doing so, I discovered the existence of a humanoid alien race. I have been developing relationships with this population for a few months now, and have formed quite a close friendship with one, a female named Celestia. Four days ago, on my last visit to the planet, she informed me that her race included a selection of ‘pollination technicians’ who impregnate humans from Earth. Specifically, human males.”

The expressions on everyone’s faces read utter confusion, but no one was brave enough to speak up except Eve. “So what the hell are you getting at, exactly?” she asked.

Cody pointed a finger in her direction, but never looked away from Micah. “Funny you should ask, because I was getting there. Celestia has offered to, using the alien technology from Sixam, use her DNA to allow Micah and I to have a child of our own.”

Eve snorted, but tried to cover it with a cough. Arya rubbed Eve’s back briefly as she spoke. “Cody, I know I may have lived for seventy-three years as a vampire, but I think I speak for everyone here when I say… what in the actual fuck?”

“Arya, there are children here! Callie and Kai too!” Sebastian cried, reaching over to cover Sammy’s ears.

“Why does everyone always make this joke?!” Sammy exclaimed. “It’s even worse now that there are actual children here.”

“Apologies, Sebastian. Let me amend. How is ‘what in the goddamn world?’ for you?” Seb nodded in approval, removing his hands from his cousin’s ears. “My question still stands, Cody. What does this mean for you?”

“The pollination technicians’ job is to plant alien DNA into the bodies of men who get abducted by their ships, and then return them to Earth. It essentially seems to mimic a typical pregnancy for a human--nine months’ gestation as the fetus grows, and then birth. I have not quite figured out how that one will work out, but I am willing to test it.”

“You’re telling me that you’re going to get pregnant. With an alien lady’s kid. And then you and Micah are going to raise it?” Eve asked.

“That is precisely what I’m telling you. We were just going to adopt someday, but this is simply too fascinating to pass up.”

“Just… please don’t make your child a lab rat for its entire life,” Sammy said. “That’s all I ask.”

“Are you not happy for us?” Cody asked. “We’re going to have a child.”

Micah touched his arm gently. “They’ll be happy for us eventually. That was a pretty big bomb you just dropped, Jett. You can’t expect them to immediately just treat that as normal information.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Cody said, placing his own hand over the spot his boyfriend had just touched.

Makoa, meanwhile, looked positively pale at the other end of the table. “You did not prepare me for this one, darling,” he said to Sage. She simply pressed her lips together and squeezed his shoulder.

“Oh, no one was prepared for this one.”

-

Other conversations were attempted from that point on, but Cody’s announcement had obviously left everyone a little out of sorts. The meal ended quickly and everyone gave their thanks to Sammy and Caleb for cooking for them. Hugs were given all around and babies continued to be cooed over. The Sulani families then made their way upstairs to turn in for an early night in two of the countless guest rooms. Arya and the Spicers departed soon after, Lilith sending both her girls off with kisses.

This left just Cody and Micah standing in the foyer with the home’s occupants. “I am sorry if I ruined the celebration with our announcement,” Cody said. “Clearly I find it a lot more exciting than any of you did.”

“It’s just a bit jarring to think about, is all. But I can assure you that Sammy and I, at least, are genuinely very happy for the two of you,” Caleb said.

“I am very intrigued, I will say,” Lilith added. “But I have always trusted your research, or I never would have called upon you to help us. So I believe that whatever happens will be worth the end result.”

“Also, it’s just gonna be really funny to see you pregnant,” Sammy said with a giggle.

“Hey, Short Stack, be nice. You can just magic yourself a baby, I don’t know how to do that yet. We had to try other ways,” Micah said.

“Really though, what Caleb said. I’m super happy for you.”

“We’re super happy too.” Micah wrapped his arms around Cody’s shoulders and squeezed. “Anyway though,” he continued, “we should probably head out. Rue’s with Chase, Val, and their new baby for the holiday so he won’t be back tonight and we have cats to feed.”

“Happy Harvestfest, you two! Drive safe and make sure you don’t miss your ferry back to the mainland,” Sammy said as he sandwiched himself between the two in a hug.

The Vatore siblings waved goodbye as the front door shut behind Cody. “He does realize that I can just do this, right?” Micah asked, wiggling his fingers as they began to glimmer gold. “ _ Transportalate, _ ” he said, grabbing Cody’s hands. When the redhead blinked, they were on the front steps of their home, under the leafy garland they had hung a few days prior.

“Hm, you’ve gotten quite good at that, Granados,” Cody quipped. “I’m not even nauseous this time.”

“Ha ha, you know I’ve been working on it, don’t be like that.”

In the cool night air, the couple could see their breaths mingling between them. However, neither moved to go inside.

“You know I love you, right?” Cody said after a few moments of silence.

“You’re going to have an alien baby for me, how could I ever question that again?”

“Glad you know that I’ll be lording that over you for the rest of your life.”

Micah just smiled widely, tilting his head down to meet Cody’s eyes. “Happy Harvestfest, you goof,” he said.

When their lips slotted together, the cold could no longer touch them. They were starting a family, to be shared with everyone they loved, and nothing could have made that holiday or, for that matter, their lives, any better.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading, whether you came from my instagram or just found this when searching through ao3. i appreciate every single view i get. don't forget to leave kudos and/or comments if you liked it!
> 
> <3 mikki


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